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Karin and I made it to the farm safely and it is wonderful. The family was so welcoming and made us feel instantly comfortable. They have two kids, 6 and 9, a German exchange student, and the grandparents live on the property in the original settlers' house from 1860. The property is on a peninsula just south of Auckland so we are surrounded by the Manuka Harbour and the Tasman Sea. You can see both bodies of water from the top of the hills. The family owns the majority of the property on the peninsula because it has been spread out between brothers and sisters, aunt's, uncles, and cousins. The land is beautiful... green rolling hills for miles...kilometers, rather.
They transformed an old sheep sheering barn into a bunk house, which is where Karin and I are staying. It is basic but has everything we need. They also gave us a four-wheeler to drive around the farm whenever and wherever we want. We eat breakfast on our own but have lunch and dinner with the family, so we have gotten to know them really quickly. We have also gotten to know Jana, the German student, who is 17 and has never traveled before but still decided she wanted to study abroad while in high school for an entire year.
Charlotte, the mother, is who we are with the majority of the day. She runs the horses, lambs, calves, goats, and chicken. The father, Kevin, runs the beef side of the farm. Charlotte has been beyond wonderful and encouraging with helping me readjust to the horse world. Most of it came back pretty quickly, but Charlotte makes it easy to ask questions. The work is hardley work at all. We help out by cleaning the arena, polishing tack, and getting the horses ready for lessons, but we also get to go on trail rides almost every day to keep the horses fit. This week, Charlotte is taking us on a three hour ride down to the beach.
We have learned that lambs are originally born with long tails but it is important to dock their tails, otherwise they will get dirty and flies will lay eggs on them and eventually kill the lamb from disease.... we just so happened to be here at the time they had to dock the tails. I was imagining that we were going to have to literally chop off the tail, but you only have to put a tight rubberband around the tail to cut off circulation so that it falls off on its own. Gross... but it's better than the former. To get this done, Karin and I had to herd the lambs into a small paddock. This was probably the single most difficult and hilarious task I have ever been asked to complete. I quickly learned that lambs are dumb, fast, and can jump...really far and high. Trying to catch a tiny lamn while laughing hysterically is tougher than it sounds.
It has been an amazing two weeks. It has also been so nice to not have to pack up our stuff and move from hostel to hostel every few nights. We kind of feel like we are at camp... I'm going to be sad to leave! Lucky for me, I have Dad and Charlie to look forward to in just a few days!
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